🔗 Share this article

Residents of the Big Apple will find out who will be their next mayor this Tuesday, in a contest that will decide who governs and defends the nation's largest city at a time when Donald Trump has vowed to send armed forces to the city.

In this context, New York has experienced a mayoral election that has matched two very different Democratic figures against one another. The contest has become an acrimonious face-off, laced with alleged racism and anti-Muslim sentiment, but it is the political differences between the two main contenders that could have significant consequences for how the party fares in next year's congressional races.

The Rising Progressive

In the progressive corner is Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive candidate whose meteoric rise and people-powered movement has brought international attention. On the establishment side is Andrew Cuomo, the ex- New York governor now campaigning independently – and benefiting from the support of wealthy contributors and big business.

With days to go, it is the progressive, the former longshot who defeated Cuomo in the Democratic primary who is firmly installed as the frontrunner. The candidate, who has campaigned on a agenda of economic justice and pledged to freeze rent for about two million city residents, has led Cuomo by significant margins across all surveys taken in the fall, and it is very much the younger man's election to throw away.

A Bitter Contest

However, Cuomo, who stepped down as the state's leader in recent years amid allegations of misconduct, has stated clearly he will battle to the finish, and not necessarily in an fair fashion. He has trashed his opponent's goals as unrealistic, and in recent days chuckled along as a broadcaster made anti-Muslim comments about Mamdani, who is a Muslim. Recently, Cuomo was strongly criticized as racist after posting an AI-generated ad that featured a series of racial caricatures and showed his opponent freeing a convicts.

This represents a rather grubby conclusion to an race that could be critical to the direction that the party, floundering in its reaction to the former president's authoritarian grabs, adopts in the coming years.

Broader Consequences

Should the progressive wins convincingly, the establishment party leaders who have refused to endorse his campaign will be compelled to address a message that has resonated with Americans' anger at inequality, inflation and the establishment. It would be hard for the Senate leader and Hakeem Jeffries not to adopt at least a portion of the candidate's ambitious ideas about economic justice, given the fresh face has generated an enthusiasm within the Democratic ranks arguably not witnessed since Bernie Sanders campaigned for the White House eight years ago.

Conversely, should Cuomo, who had been expected to sail to victory in the June primary, complete a remarkable comeback victory, it could cement the party's current model of cautious, uninspiring resistance – a tactic that has infuriated the party base. A New York defeat of the progressive's optimistic platform could convince Schumer and Jeffries that the best plan is to stick to the center – even as surveys show the present version of the Democratic party is widely disliked across the country.

Voter Enthusiasm

Voters in the city seem to prefer the progressive agenda. Surveys show that his backers are much more excited about their choice than his opponent's supporters, something that has been evident during the race. The candidate's engaging content on digital platforms, his hopeful outlook for New York and his willingness to actually venture out and connect with voters in the metropolis has drawn an force of more than 50,000 volunteers, many of them youth or first-time voters.

Personal Attacks

Yet, the former governor, 67, isn't giving up. And with the risks stacked against him, the former governor has resorted to negative campaigning in the final days.

Following extensive launching various attacks at Mamdani to see what might stick, the independent has narrowed his focus on targeting Mamdani directly. He has called Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to South Asian heritage, an "radical", and appeared on conservative media for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, where Cuomo claimed New York “will not survive” his opponent as mayor. It reached a nadir last week, when Cuomo chuckled and said “that’s another problem” after a broadcaster said the candidate would “cheer” another terrorist incident.

Campaign Dynamics

This strategy mirrors much of what the former president, who has sent the military reserves to Washington DC and warned to do the same to NYC, has said about Mamdani, and perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise. A set of wealthy residents, including some who donated to the Republican in the 2024 election, have invested heavily into trying to elect the independent elected, as other influential figures have pressured Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the contest.

Political Histories

For the Cuomo camp, and his billionaire supporters, are worried, it should never have come to this. When the assemblyman, one of one hundred fifty New York state assembly members, launched his campaign for mayor in October 2024, not many had heard of him, and in reality, few even noticed.

Cuomo, by contrast, eased his way into the contest in March 2025 and became the instant favorite. He was the big beast who apparently held all the advantages. The quintessential political insider, he had wed a Kennedy and worked in a Democratic presidency. He assumed office as the state's leader in over a decade ago, 17 years after his father, Mario Cuomo, stepped down from the same position.

The progressive, who was elected to the New York state assembly in recently, does not have the comparable background. But his dedication to providing free buses and free childcare – along with the freeze-the-rent pledge – present a more positive vision of the future than Cuomo’s dire warnings about “mayhem” and rising criminal activity, and his vow to increase police presence.

Recent Challenges

Still, the candidate has faced difficulties in recent days, after video surfaced suggesting him implying the NYPD and the IDF were connected.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the police is on your neck, it’s been influenced by the Israeli military,” Mamdani said in the recording, filmed at a DSA convention in 2023. The progressive, a longtime critic of the Israeli government who has said the nation is committing genocide in Gaza, suggested he was criticizing joint training exercises between the NYPD and IDF.

Powerful Moment

With the election nearing, Mamdani appears to have won sympathy and support, however, for his response to Cuomo’s increasing rhetoric.

Mamdani addressed Cuomo’s 9/11 remarks in an emotional video. In it, Mamdani remembered how, when he first ran for state assembly, a Muslim uncle suggested to him that he did not have to disclose about his religion. It was a realization, Mamdani said, that many Muslim New Yorkers had been told “again and again”: “That safety could only be found in the shadows of our community. That it is in those hidden spaces alone where Muslims could embrace their full identities, and that if we were to step out from those seclusion, then it is in those shadows that we must leave our faith.”

Speaking to the behavior of Cuomo and Sliwa, who has claimed Mamd